Fairfield Democrats under investigation

The Connecticut State Elections Enforcement Commission (CT SEEC) sanctioned a formal investigation into a complaint filed against the Fairfield Democratic Town Committee (Fairfield DTC or FDTC) for accepting nearly $60,000 in potentially illegal campaign contributions.

Fairfield Republican Town Committee Chairman James Millington filed the complaint in April 2017 after several months of observing questionable financial reporting by the Fairfield Democratic Party. Millington said: “If proven true, this is one of the most flagrant violations of campaign finance law I have ever seen in my twenty-six years in Fairfield politics.”

The complaint is backed up by postings on the Fairfield Democratic Town Committee’s Facebook page, which show that Fairfield Democrats opened their headquarters at 338 Commerce Drive, Fairfield, CT in July 2016. The space occupied by the Fairfield Democrats, according to a real estate listing and floor plan, show they occupied at least 4,500 square feet of office space, which is valued at $18 per square foot plus utilities. Finance reports show that only one rental payment of $2,450 was made on May 5, 2016 and there is no public record of any further payments through April 10, 2017.

“Once the dust settles on an election, most town committees close their headquarters,’’ said Millington. “I thought it was strange that the Fairfield Democrats did not, so I decided to look into it. What I found was that they had only made one rental payment of $2,450 in May of 2016. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and checked another report and when no payments were reported, I decided to file the complaint.”

Despite the lack of rental payments, Millington provided evidence of campaign activities at the aforementioned headquarters’ location as follows:

July 2016 through November 2016: Traditional campaign activities by State Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, former State Rep. candidate and current Fairfield RTM Member Dru Georgiadis, former State Rep. candidate Fred Garrity and former State Senate candidate and current Fairfield Board of Education Chairman Phil Dwyer;

December 2016: Phone banking for Planned Parenthood and petition drives for a special election including being open daily for petition drop offs;

January 2017 through February 2017: Phone banking for state legislative special elections and Planned Parenthood;